1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a headgear frame apparatus of a sewing machine for embroidering a headgear.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 5, a conventional headgear frame apparatus 105 is provided with: a headgear frame 100 for clamping a headgear 1; a rotary drive frame 106 for fitting said headgear frame 100 replaceably thereon on the side of a sewing machine; a support frame 109 for supporting said rotary drive frame 106 rotatably; and a guide plate 110 fixed on said support frame 109 and extending to the side of a cylindrical bed 111 of the sewing machine. The guide plate 110 pushes forward boundary corner portion 7 between the circumferential portion 5 and the crest portion 6 of the headgear 1 at its leading end edge thereby to tense the circumferential portion (or a range to be embroidered) of the headgear 1 over the cylindrical bed 111.
Here, the circumferential portion 5 and the crest portion 6 of the headgear 1 are formed by stitching cloths 1a, each of which is cut in a generally triangular shape, and reinforcing cloth bands are so stitched to the inner side of the headgear 1 as to cover that stitched portions, so that band-shaped ridges 8 are formed along the stitched portions. When the headgear 1 is turned at a high speed during the embroidering operation by the rotary drive frame 106, the edge portion (especially the leading end side) of the guide plate 110 is caught by that ridges 8 (especially in the vicinities of the boundary corner portion 7) to cause problems that (1) the boundary corner portion 7 is damaged, and that (2) the side of the crest portion 6 of the headgear 1 cannot follow the rotation of the rotary drive frame 106 to twist the circumferential portion 5 of the headgear 1.
These problems make it difficult to push the boundary corner portion 7 sufficiently with the leading end edge of the guide plate 110. As a result, the tension of the range to be embroidered is insufficient to wrinkle the headgear 1 during the embroidering operation and shrink the cloth of the headgear by the embroidering operation so that the headgear 1 is poorly stitched.